The Countdown To The End of Med School: A Prelude

TOMORROW I'll start a daily countdown to The End of Med School—30 days left, can you believe it? I wrote in a previous entry that I don't feel extra excited for May 1 the way some of the classmates do. But the feelings will come in due time, I guess. I have too many things in my hands—my OB rotation and stresses that come with it. For now, though, I live each day one day at a time, living every moment in the light of God's grace. He has, after all, sustained me since day one of Medicine. I don't think I will live my life differently this final month.

There's a wealth of material that I've written over the past five years, and my daily Countdown posts will probably feature some of them. (I may even document my final moments as a student at UP College of Medicine - Philippine General Hospital.) I've blogged primarily for myself, you see, because I have poor memory. I find that writing things down helps me retain those memories and even process them. But hearing some friends, even random people, tell me that they follow my blog—religiously, at that—has been an added bonus. In a way this blog has been a means to cope with the stresses of med life. Misery does love company. But lest I make the wrong impression, I wasn't—and am not—miserable in medicine. If I were, I would've quit immediately.

So this is a Prelude of sorts, a fancy way of saying, "I'm beginning a new blog project, and I hope you'll stick around." If you've got nothing else to do, you can browse through my previous entries about Medicine here (There are some 195 of them, excluding this).

And I'll begin by sharing my entry dated June 3, 2009, appropriately entitled, "Prelude to medicine."

Nothing prepares you for med school—or so my friends say. Regardless of what undergrad course you took, you won’t have it easy. It’s clearly a new chapter in life, coupled with dramatic changes so that life is never the same again.

So, yes, life has never been the same again. I've seen human suffering, disease, and poverty on the one hand, and relief, happiness, and joie de vivre on the other.

I can't believe I wrote the sentences below.

That means that the blog entries will be sparse. I won’t be able to immediately respond to the emails. And that’s rather unfortunate, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take.

As you already know, I've kept on blogging anyway. If anything, my experience in medical training has given me so much material to write about.

So whether you're a family member, a friend, a blockmate, a classmate, or a random stranger who likes to lurk around, join me as I count the days to The End of Med School.

Meanwhile here's an OPM—one of my favorites—by Color It Red called Paglisan. "Kung ang lahat ay may katapusan / Itong paglalakbay ay makakarating din sa paroroonan." Cookie Chua may well have been singing about Medicine.